THE NUMBER of building permits issued in February 2015 stood at 401 compared with the 409 issued in February last year; a fall of 2 per cent, according to figures released yesterday by the Cyprus Statistical Service.

Compared with February 2014, the total area of these permits increased by 26% to 97,685 square metres from 77,633, while their value increased 6% to €108.9 million from €102.9 million.

During February, building permits were issued for:

Residential buildings – 270 permits

Non-residential buildings – 82 permits

Civil engineering projects – 14 permits

Division of plots of land – 24 permits

Road construction – 11 permits

New home construction

The 270 residential building permits approved in February provided for the construction of 384 new homes comprising 123 single houses and 261 multiple housing units (such as apartments, semis, townhouses and other residential complexes).

This is an increase of 68% compared with February 2014 when building permits were issued for the construction of 229 new homes.

According to the Cyprus Statistical Service, building permits constitute a leading indicator of future activity in the construction sector.

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Readers' comments

Jim, I do agree with your comments “do not buy without clear title deed at the point of sale”. Our family bought five properties here off developers and had to wait for our deeds, which we have all now got. So really there IS some good stories. HOWEVER we understand that we were fortunate and would not do it again. Mmmm, we would of course buy real with title deeds.

@Steve R on 2015/05/06 at 7:49 am – If you purchase off-plan and the land is mortgage free, your contract of sale will take precedence over any mortgage that the developer takes out subsequently.

If the developer then goes bankrupt a liquidator will be appointed. Although you will not be liable for any of the developer’s debts you will probably have to pay the liquidator in the region of 11% of the purchase price to secure the deeds.

Good news! It would appear recession is bottoming out. Now all they want to do is modernise their archaic title deeds system and sort out the ludicrous swimming pool regulations for complexes and people can start breathing easy. I am not holding my breath!

These figures are all well and good but they only show there are a few investors willing to build properties. They still have to be marketed and sold. This will probably be the downfall. With all the bad press regarding title deeds, bad banks/solicitors and developers will potential buyers trust these people. Cyprus has not done one single thing to improve things in any of these departments. Are there just going to be more empty new build houses to add to the existing portfolio.

Just one question I would like answering. If you purchase off plan and the builder is loan free. Once the site has been completed could he still be able to obtain a loan secured against the site or has that been stopped now. If not he could receive the purchase price for each property, top this up with the loan and then go bankrupt. This would leave the purchaser in a lot of trouble again when applying for their title deeds.

The views expressed in readers' comments are not necessarily shared by the Cyprus Property News.